Time machine!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Good quality scans of film negative (must tweak settings)

Cons: Film scanning is quite slow if you have lots of film to scan 

The Bottom Line: 
Great scanner for film negative and fast for photo scanning too

Author's Review
I was looking for a scanner that could scan film negatives on a budget, and considered serveral alternatives. I had checked out the web where various professional specialist scanners were available but beyond my budget (e.g. Nikon). I narrowed down my choices to the CS8800F and cheaper CS5800F. 
However, the salesman at the store pointed out that the CS8800F has a dedicated light for illuminating negatives and slides and was the better of the two. I already own a Pixma all-in-one printer and generally happy with the scanner part, but decided to get a new scanner to digitalize my pile of 35mm film negatives. So I picked up the CS8800F for USD 200 (approx) and registered online with Canon who provided an extension of warranty to 3 years (from 1 year). All-in-all, a good deal.

Setup was easy, just remember to install the CD before plugging in the scanner to the USB port (and Canon makes sure you know this in their instructions). Once the software was setup, I loaded the 35mm negatives on the supplied frames, snapped them onto the scanner and removed the white faceplate to expose the light on the scanner cover. 
I started up Photoshop CS4 and clicked on import and selected the 8800. On clicking preview, small thumbnails appeared quickly and I could tweak various settings such as auto-tone, fading compensation, etc to compensate for the old negatives. I choose a resolution of 2400 dpi (dots per inch) and clicked on scan. 3 minutes later, a 20- year old image appeared in Photoshop with crisp colours. The negative, being 20 years in storage, had some lines, cracks and fungus, so I used Photoshop's healing tool to clear them up and Presto! an image so clear, it could have been taken yesterday! (Hence the title of this review, Time Machine).
Some other negatives I had were badly deteriorated and could not be scanned completely, however, they were frames that were recoverable and it is amazing to see those old images come to life. You would think that negatives would last 100 years, but with poor storage conditions, they can be destroyed even after only 20 years. I noticed that the scanner sometimes misaligned the frame of the negative and needed some cropping. This could be because some of the film is old and curled although held tight in the supplied frame.
I also scanned some old photos and this was faster than scanning film negatives, taking only tens of seconds per 3" x 5" colour photograph at 300 dpi. I have not had the opportunity to test the scanner for scanning slides nor larger format film (120 format), that it is capable of.
I am overall pleased with the Canoscan CS8800f for the purpose I purchased it and am taking time to scan my negatives. You can imagine scanning a hundred rolls of negative film at  2400 dpi at 3 minutes per image (or at 1200 dpi at 2 minutes per image) and you can see I will be occupied for a long time!

Pros:- Good quality scans of film negative and photos (especially if you tweak the scan settings to compensate for fading, scratches, grain, etc)- Fast scanning for photos- Easy setupWorks immediately after setup with Photoshop CS4 (no need to use the bundled software)
Cons:- Film scanning is quite slow if you have lots of film to scan but can't really complain at this price